Producing State Space in Chiapas: Passive Revolution and Everyday Life

Abstract

This article examines processes of state formation in Chiapas, Mexico, from the time of the Revolution (1910–17) to the present. The purpose of the article is threefold. First it demonstrates how differing modes of production attempt to alter the production of space, yet at the same time, how pre-capitalist spaces and social relations, as well as movements of resistance, both alter the topography of capitalism as it unfolds. Second it explores ‘everyday’ processes of state formation linked to localized class cultures. In doing so, it makes claims to originality by providing a spatially sensitive account of Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, and indeed breaks new ground by demonstrating a sub-national articulation of passive revolution as a means of constructing state space. Finally, it considers the importance of counter-spaces formed in opposition to the state and what the response has been in turn to these ‘spaces of resistance’.